HIJRA PRINTS

"Hijra" is a Sanskrit word meaning neither male nor female and refers to a community of transwomen (male to female) from Pakistan and India. Hijras have held important but tragically exploited roles in South Asian society throughout history; they are still expected to dance at weddings and bless newly born children while being purposefully excluded from "normal" physical and social communities. Commonly, Hijras are relegated to begging and sex work for money and pushed to the outskirts of towns and into slums with self created families for social support. To learn more about Hijras and work that's being done to support equal rights advocacy see: https://www.guernicamag.com/indias-third-gender/.

I love how the process of screenprinting, and the systematic layering of images to create something complex, beautiful yet 'un-precious', connects so poetically with the process of a Hijra becoming who she is. I hope that you can see it too in the process I've laid out below.